website/content/museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a5000.md

---
title: Acorn Computer Archimedes A5000
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- United Kingdom
years:
- '1991'
cpus:
- ARM 3 32 bit RISC
params:
  name: Archimedes A5000
  company: /companies/acorn-computer
  company_name: Acorn Computer
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: Archimedes A5000
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Acorn Computer
  - label: TYPE
    value: Professional Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: United Kingdom
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1991'
  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
    value: BBC BASIC V
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: Full-stroke 102 keys PC-style
  - label: CPU
    value: ARM 3 32 bit RISC
  - label: SPEED
    value: 25 or 33 Mhz.
  - label: CO-PROCESSOR
    value: MEMC (memory), VIDC (Video and Sound), IOC (I/O)
  - label: RAM
    value: 2 to 4 MB
  - label: ROM
    value: 2 MB
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: 80 columns x 25 rows up to 132 x 32
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: VGA video output. Several graphic modes. Among them 640 x 256 or 512 pixels
  - label: COLORS
    value: '4096'
  - label: SOUND
    value: 8 voices synthesizer
  - label: SIZE / WEIGHT
    value: 43 (W) x 33.5 (D) x 9.8 (H) cm
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: Centronics, RS423, VGA, Econet, 4 expansion slots
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: 3.5'' FDD (800 KB, 1.44 MB and 1.6 MB formatted capacities), HDD from 20 MB
  - label: OS
    value: RISC OS 3 then 3.11 (in ROM)
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: Built-in power supply unit
  - label: PRICE
    value: From £1,000 to £1,800
  tabs:
  - photos
  - adverts
  - hardware
  - emulators
  - links
  - docs
  photos:
  - title: MAIN UNIT
    subtitle: ''
    text: Special thanks to **Jerome Mathevet**
    image: null
  - title: RUNNING
    subtitle: ''
    text: 'When no hard disk is found, the A5000 offers several applications available in ROM: Hardware and peripherals configuration, Time and alarm, Editor, Calc, Paint and Draw programs, as well as a complete help system.'
    image: null
  - title: KEYBOARD CLOSE UP
    subtitle: ''
    text: Same keys layout as a standard PC-AT keyboard, apart from the Reset switch and mouse socket located on the back side.
    image: null
  - title: REAR PANEL
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      An optional piggy-back card have to be installed to run the Econet network interface.\
      The video socket is a standard 15-pin model.\
      The parallel interface is bi-directional.
    image: null
  - title: OPENED
    subtitle: ''
    text: Note the 3.5" floppy drive (800 KB, 1.6 MB and 1.44 MB formatted capacities) and a Conner 420 MB IDE HDD.
    image: null
  - title: MOTHERBOARD
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      This version has 4 MB on-board RAM. It is also equipped with a dual card 8 MB RAM expansion.

      **(1)** I/O management VLSI custom chipset\
      **(2)** VLSI custom video chipset\
      **(3)** Econet card connector\
      **(4)** 2 MB ROM chips. Hold the RISC OS 3 and several applications - Paint, Draw, utilities...\
      **(5)** 8 MB expansion RAM chips\
      **(6)** 4 MB on-board chips\
      **(7)** ARM 3 processor, moved to the RAM expansion card\
      **(8)** On-board memory management VLSI chipset\
      **(9)** Second memory management chipset, specific to the RAM expansion card\
      **(10)** Optional math coprocessor\
      **(11)** IDE HDD and dual FDD connectors\
      **(12)** HDD and FDD power leads.
    image: null
  - title: RAM EXPANSION CLOSE-UP
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      The RAM expansion is composed of two cards linked together by a flat cable:\
      • The RAM card is connected to the expansion slot,\
      • the CPU card is connected to the on-board CPU socket, the ARM CPU is thus moved to its new socket. The card also holds a specific memory management chipset.
    image: null
  adverts:
  - title: ENGLISH LEAFLET
    subtitle: ''
    text: Intended for educational market.
    image: null
  hardware:
  - title: 486 CARD
    subtitle: ''
    text: Allowed Archimedes series computers to run 32-bit PC-DOS software. It was delivered with a manual, a driver disk and PC-DOS 6.3
    image: null
  - title: GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      Graphics accelerator card (called "ColourCard") for A3000, Archimedes and A5000.\
      Company : Computer Concepts\
      Enhanced potential for Archimedes series including 15-bit desktop modes (i.e. 800\*600 @ 256 colours).

      Thanks to **Chris Syntichakis**
    image: null
  - title: CUMANA SCSI CARD
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      16-bit SCSI-1 card\
      Company: Cumana.\
      There are an external port for scanners/CD-ROM etc. and 2 internal ports for SCSI and Floptical drives.

      Thanks to **Chris Syntichakis**
    image: null
  - title: SERIAL CARD
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      From Atomwide's site:\
      High speed serial card featuring three ports, each in the shape of a standard 9-pin ‘D’ plug. Each port on the card is capable of running at up to 460,800 bits per second, and employs a 16-byte FIFO buffer to reduce loading on the host computer’s processor, so improving communications reliability. All serial cards are standard single-width podules, and are fully compatible with Atomwide 6 and 8-slot RiscPC backplanes.
    image: null
  - title: MIDI CARD
    subtitle: ''
    text: Allowed Archimedes systems to interact with any midi sound device.
    image: null
  - title: RAM CARD
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      2MB RAM Expansion for A5000.\
      Company: RISC Developments.\
      To increase the max RAM to a total of 4MB.

      Thanks to **Chris Syntichakis**
    image: null
  emulators:
  - title: Arculator
    url: http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/
    platform: Windows
    text: An excellent Windows-based Archimedes emulator, plays many games and has simple usage.
  - title: Red Squirrel
    url: http://www.red-squirrel.org/
    platform: Windows
    text: An Emulator of Arm based Acorn machines for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
  - title: Virtual Acorn
    url: http://www.virtualacorn.co.uk/
    platform: Windows
    text: Excellent but commercial software - £30
  - title: ARCHIE
    url: http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/campus/5427/
    platform: Multiplatform
    text: Archie is an emulation of the Acorn Archimedes hardware (A3xx/A4xx/A3xxx) for DOS/Windows
  links:
  - title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
    url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
    text: ''
  docs:
  - title: TOM'S ARCHIMEDES DOCS (INTERNAL HARDWARE)
    url: http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/index.html
    cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/vide.gif
    text: |-
      [**TOM'S ARCHIMEDES DOCS (INTERNAL HARDWARE)**](http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/index.html)written by Tom Mowalker

       compiled/archived by Tom Mowalker\
       type of document : HTML\
       source : [Arculator](http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/index.html)
  comments:
  - author: PVT (Worcesttershire)
    date: Sunday 8th February 2015
    text: I have a pristine A5000 full spec DVD with manuals and loads of software. Does anyone want to buy it?
  - author: J C (UK)
    date: Friday 12th October 2012
    text: |-
      Hi everyone, I wonder if any of you could help us out. We have a A5000 in great condition (plus printer) which we are hoping to sell to pay the bills!

      Is the price listed on this page (1000-1800 pounds) a realistic asking price for selling it today? It seems rather high $ (it''s surely not listing the original price by any chance is it?)
  - author: Michael Lorenz (USA)
    date: Wednesday 11th March 2009
    text: |-
      Just some additions - Econet was optional, my A5000 came without. Then, the highest standard resolution was 800x600. Maximum colour depth was 8 bit - 16 colours and the other four bits were used for hue and saturation IIRC. Also, with 3rd party upgrades RAM could be expanded to 8MB. Finally, the keyboard may have some superficial resemblance with PS/2 keyboards but it really isn''t. Not even close. Some keys are labeled differently, there''s a standard bus mouse port and a hardware reset button in the back of the keyboard. The mouse that came with mine was made by Logitech no less. And the connector is actually a serial port, reset line and power supply for the mouse controller in the keyboard. Plugging a PS/2 keyboard in would blow some fuses. Mouse events are merged into the keyboard data stream, there is no separate line for mouse data,\
      The mainboard of at least some revisions was actually prepared for PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports. There''s a jumper to switch between acorn and PS/2 mode but no PS/2 connectors are fitted and there are no holes in the case.
  - author: Tony Salvidge (Radstock, nr Bath)
    date: Friday 21st March 2008
    text: I have an Archimedes A3000 computer which has gone faulty. I have some software on the hard-drive which I require, but I am unable to access the hardrive for some reason. Can anyone help
  - author: mrdalliard (UK)
    date: Friday 1st June 2007
    text: |-
      The rumour about monitors going up in smoke was true. I had a couple repairs to my monitor during it's lifespan - and Acorn even extended the warranty by several years - bless 'em.

      I've still got my A5000 and it still works just fine.
  - author: Nigel (uk)
    date: Sunday 4th May 2003
    text: I remeber being one of the first to get an A5000 I think I had to wait 6 or 7 weeks after ordering it at the show when they were released. My machine has a serial no ending with a number just over 100 (102 or 105) I think. Still works fine but I haven't used it for a while now...
  related:
  - /museum/acorn-computer-a4
  - /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes
  - /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a3000
  - /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a3010
  - /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a3020
  - /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a4000
  - /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a7000
  oc_id: 710
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230605132547/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=710
    date: '2023-06-05'
---

The Acorn A5000 was an all new model of the Archimedes family replacing the A540. It had 4 slots like previous models but a larger wider case making it look like a workstation computer.

It was built on the new fast ARM3 processor as used in the A4 laptop. VGA output and new extra screen modes were introduced as well using cheap standardised IDE hard disks. The keyboard was the quality 'Brisbane' model as used on the previous high end Acorns. (Or could 'Brisbane' be the codename for the A5000, as I discovered it inside the keyboard PCB when I did some repairs on mine?)

Many A5000s were fitted with SCSI controller cards and used with caddy-type external CD ROM drives for multimedia applications.

Early models had just 2MB of RAM with a slot to allow a 4MB RAM card to be mounted on top. Later A5000s were slightly faster, had 4MB on the motherboard as standard and more generously sized hard disks.

There are rumours that some of the Liteon built Acorn AKF18 SVGA multisync monitors normally supplied with the A4000/A5000 were recalled as they could overheat and catch fire! :(

Information supplied by **Jonathan Hayward**